13 Things Kindergartners Just Wish Their Parents Knew About School

As I was coaxing my son out of bed this morning he whined, "But I don’t want to go to school." He says the same thing every morning, and it's usually him simply stalling. But today I asked him to tell me more. As a newly minted kindergartner, with just a couple of months of elementary school under his belt, it turned out he had a lot of opinions about how things are going at school. In fact, I'm realizing there are quite a few things my kindergartner wants his parents to know.

Turns out, my son didn't want to go to school because he wanted to stay with me and his little brother. So instead of being annoying my heart melted, since he's always been my little shadow and, well, it's nice to know some things never change. It also answered some questions about why he's been so jealous of his brother, especially since he started school. "When I fall down you aren't there to help me," my son said. "I have to go to the nurse's office instead of you. That makes me sad." Hello, emotional terrorism.

When I ask other parents to interview their kindergartners about the things they want them to know about school, they learned some new things, too. For example, parents heard all about how hard it is to adjust to a place where you have to sit still all day and listen to a teacher. Unsurprisingly, eating lunch is a big deal for kindergartners, too, who had many thoughts about things their parents should send for lunch and the food choices at school. They also had a wide variety of favorite subjects, and absolutely love recess. Thankfully, it seems that most of our kids are adjusting to being at school just fine. For more about what kindergarten is like from the kindergartners themselves, read on:

Abby, 5

"At school, we have a lot of recesses and sometimes we run and sometimes we walk. My teacher is good."

Bennett, 5

"At school you could see me writing and reading, but there's not anything I wish you could see."

Rosie, 5

"I love kindergarten, because they have computers to play on and we get to learn things. I want you to know that the best part of kindergarten is learning, because I love learning. Especially about holidays."

Veronica, 6

River, 5

"I really like school and I have a lot of fun there. Apparently, we are trying to make our own books about animals. Like, cat goes meow, mouse goes squeak, the dog was talking to the cat, ‘bark, bark,' the rhino was talking to the elephant (But, I don’t know what sound a rhino makes). I like P.E. because that’s how you spell it: P.E."

Note from River's mom: It is so good to hear that he likes school, because some mornings he says he hates school and doesn’t want to go.

Sofia, 6

"School is fun. I love math. I need to go back to playing my video game now, mom."

Mason, 5

"Kindergarten is about learning and playing inside and outside. And eating lunch two times where you have to put in your number. My number is 882795. That's all. Oh, and we go outside after lunch. And, daddy, we go to STEM, and art, and music, and P.E., and computers. Then, we go on the bus to the Y."

Note from Mason's dad: It's hard to believe there was a time when we were concerned about his language development, because he only said one word at almost 2-years-old.

Nick, 6

"You make lots of friends and learn how to spell bad words."

Bryce, 5

"I love art the most. We are learning about how Thanksgiving was made. I didn't know that before, and we get to make art projects about it... and about turkeys. It's so fun. The only part that is sad is when we do math wrong, and our teacher gets mean."

Liam, 6

“Peanut butter sandwiches are OK in my class, so you can send me those now. No more bologna, it smells funny. Like mustard.”

Ian, 6

"We have to wait all of the time. It's so hard. And math is hard, too, when I don't know the answer. It’s really hard to sit still all day at school, and we can yell loud and get all our sillies out during recess, which makes it better. Recess is my favorite part, because we can run and play games."

Anonymous

"School can be really mean, so you should try to be nice. It's really hard to sit still and listen all day."